!!!!

It's possible that in every class, there emerges a certain widespread issue, usually involving punctuation, that is unique to that particular section and must be dealt with accordingly. The first class I ever taught used a terrifying number of semicolons; it's possible that I bear some of the blame for that, having mentioned early on that semicolons used properly were kind of hot. This past fall, it would have been the comma splice: a problem that crops up among many students, but one that seemed particularly prevalent in this class of fast talkers who, for the most part, were extremely invested in their own cleverness.

Having spent more time than I would have liked over the past twenty-four hours reading my students' first paper drafts (yes, I have the timer, but I'm never fast on the first round and I like these kids more), I can safely say that Spring 2008 is the Semester of the Exclamation Point.

Seriously, I have never *seen* so many of the things outside of MySpace. And I clearly need to make a shortcut for the comment that says, "Enthusiasm is great; 900 exclamation marks are not." Part of me wonders if this is a function of having a greater-than usual contingent of students who learned English in Europe and were also trained in German and other languages where the exclamation point is more acceptable. Others, I can only guess, are just really, really, really that excited. There's a certain gendering to this phenomenon, but the dudes are not immune either. So we may have to talk about this on Tuesday. At least I bribed them with cookies during Thursday's grammar lecture.

(Not that I should be thinking about this at all, since I'll be spending Tuesday morning trying to rectify the fact that Teaching College didn't bother to pay me last week. I'm sure it's connected to the fiasco that was getting this class in the first place. Needless to say, I am displeased, but these kids are so great that I can't help but care about them. Grr, though.)